President Trump To Defund NIST In Response of U.S. Senate Candidate Daryl Guberman's Letter

If MEP's services really retained or created more than 100,000 jobs as they claim, were are those jobs? Where is the $12.6 billion in sales they claim to have produced for U.S. businesses? ”

— Daryl Guberman

WASHINGTON, DC, US, February 16, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), the infamous, federally-funded program of The National Institute of Standards (NIST) is soon to be partially or completely defunded by President Trump in response of a letter from U.S. Senate Candidate Daryl Guberman (I-CT) and supporters. According to Guberman, MEP engages in anti-competitive business practices, wasteful spending on taxpayer dollars, cronyism, and colluding with an organization with deep ties to China known as ANAB (ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board). See http://bit.ly/2F4Vr1z

Guberman (http://www.darylguberman.com) sent a letter to President Trump and Congress as well as an official complaint to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Federal Trade Commission citing claims of MEP's wasteful spending, fraud, and anti-competitive business practices. According to reports, MEP receives in excess of $100 million annually from taxpayers with over 80% going to its leadership, staff and colleagues for payroll, commissions and bonuses.

Guberman produced a series of videos detailing MEP's wasteful spending, leadership incompetency, bogus claims, and its efforts to restrain competition, particularly in services related to quality management and ISO certification:

Guberman said he learned late last year of MEP centers across the country in 50 states and Puerto Ricocolluding with Wisconsin-based ANAB to unfairly dominate the market for the accreditation of ISO certifications to restrain competition from other accreditation bodies. If such is the case, all MEP centers nationwide are violating Antitrust laws, also referred to as "competition laws," which are statutes developed by the U.S. Government to protect consumers from predatory business practices by ensuring that fair competition exists in an open-market economy.

Connstep, Inc, a MEP center in Rocky Hill, Connecticut was caught recently attempting to deceive a Connecticut plastics distributor utilize the accreditation services of ANAB and its China-led over-sight body International Accreditation Forum (IAF). Guberman said one of Connstep's managers Robert Colapietro attempted to mislead one of his customers and hoodwink the business into transferring its ISO 9001:2015 certification to ANAB, which is overseen by Chinese businessman Xiao Jianhua in Beijing, China.

"Guberman said it's absolutely appalling and a brutal slap in the face of every taxpayer in the United States to have a federally-funded organization (Connstep) swindle American businesses into using the services of ANAB and its China-led oversight body International Accreditation Forum (IAF)" He continued, "In addition to the defunding of MEP we are asking President Trump to dissolve the entire program, not just because of MEP's of disgraceful anti-American business practices, but also because of its wasteful spending, cronyism and violations of antitrust laws." Guberman said he informed the President that MEP has proven to be an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.

An increasing number of complaints have surfaced recently online in social media, primarily from the quality management community independent of NIST-MEP suggesting the $100M in tax dollars MEP receives annually could be put to better use by investing the money directly into the nation's small businesses community. One group started a petition to disband MEP altogether because they find it deeply troubling that 80% of the tax dollars sent to MEP centers nationwide are going directly to the pockets of managers, staff and colleagues, with a large portion as so-called bonuses.

"MEP wants the public and media to believe the resources they provide are not available in the private sector and supposedly can only be attained successfully through taxpayer subsidized public sector services, and that is not only completely false, it's also seriously restraining competition," said Donald LaBelle, Chairman of the American Board of Accredited Certifications (ABAC) (http://www.aboac.org)

He added, "Before the MEP scheme burdened taxpayers, there were thousands of successful independent quality management consultancies back in the 90's effectively serving the manufacturing community across the country. They were affordable, cost-effective, and because of their talents they did not need to rely on government subsidizes. Today, these same consultants are forced to compete with MEP centers across the country and its taxpayer subsidized public sector service."

The MEP website claims its services have helped 26,313 manufacturers, leading to $12.6 billion in sales, $1.7 billion in cost savings, $3.5 billion in new client investments. Guberman said MEP can spin their claims or fudge their numbers all they want, but the facts do not lie. "If MEP's services really retained or created more than 100,000 jobs as they claim, were are those jobs?," said Guberman.

He concluded, "I've been in quality management for over 30 years and I assure you, if a consultant group such as MEP was talented enough to help companies increase sales by $12.6 billion in sales as they claim… they certainly do not need a a tax-funded business-welfare system ripping off the middle class over $100 million dollars every year."